A Hamilton County resident and anti-tax activist has asked the Ohio Elections Commission to investigate thousands of dollars that Hamilton County Clerk of Court Aftab Pureval spent from his county campaign account, charging Pureval illegally spent some of that money on his congressional race and didn't document some spending at all.

Pureval told the Enquirer earlier this month that the $30,000 his county campaign spent in the first six months of the year relates to the clerk's office. But The Enquirer found publicly available campaign finance reports that raise questions of whether Pureval used his clerk of courts campaign account for expenses in his federal race.

Lawyer Brian Shrive, acting on behalf of Hamilton County resident Mark Miller, filed an elections complaint against Pureval, his clerk of courts campaign and its treasurer, Evan Nolan. Miller is the treasurer of the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes.

The complaint charges that Pureval violated three state election laws: He did not file accurate reports, he used clerk of courts campaign money for personal use (his congressional race) and he failed to document all expenses.

Using a county account in a federal race could be a violation of election laws because the rules for each are different.

"These are serious violations ... that could warrant criminal sanctions," Shrive said. "The expenditures raise a lot of red flags."

Sarah Topy, a spokesperson for Pureval's congressional campaign, said in a statement, "This is a phony complaint meant to distract from the issues that matter in this race. Aftab Pureval has acted legally and appropriately."

Pureval, after the Enquirer's questioned the spending, filed an amended 2017 campaign finance report, but did not make amendments to 2018 spending.

Pureval, a Democrat, is challenging Steve Chabot, R-Westwood, for Ohio's 1st Congressional District seat. The seat, long held by Chabot, is seen as a toss-up this election cycle and is being watched nationally.

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Hamilton County Democratic Party Co-Chairwoman Connie Pillich last week filed a federal elections complaint against Chabot, alleging Chabot's Congressional campaign is overpaying his son-in-law to build and maintain the Chabot for Congress website. While campaigns are permitted to pay family, it must be at market rate.

Even though a potential run for re-election wouldn't come for another two years when Pureval's term is up, his clerk campaign account spent $30,000 in the first six months of this year, according to a campaign finance reports filed at the Hamilton County Board of Elections. Pureval was elected in 2016.

If Pureval did use the county account for his federal race, such use could violate federal and state campaign finance laws. Violations of federal and state campaign finance laws can carry criminal penalties, including jail time.

The state elections complaint makes four claims:

That Pureval and his congressional campaign "disguised federal campaign contributions" to evade contribution limits. Pureval's mother, Drenko Pureval, made two $15,000 contributions by Pureval's clerk of courts campaign after her son announced his congressional run, the clerk of courts 2018 semi-annual report shows. The complaint says the donations were not intended to support Pureval's campaign for re-election as clerk, rather they were made "for the purpose of evading the contribution limits applicable to federal candidate committees" and to support Pureval's federal campaign.

That Pureval disguised federal campaign expenditures on the clerk of courts campaign finance report and provided incomplete documentation. Among the unexplained expenses were spending on travel, media and consulting. On the issue of travel, the complaint questions a Jan. 8 payment of $2,884 to Joe Levy, the brother-in-law of Pureval's campaign manager, Sarah Topy, for "travel." It does not say where the travel was to or why the travel was necessary. There are three other travel payments with no explanation, the complaint alleges. On the issue of media, the complaint questions a $360 payment to Mark Byron, who photographed Pureval's congressional race kick-off announcement. There is no payment to Byron in Pureval's federal campaign reports. On the issue of consulting, the complaint questions a $16,400 payment to GBA Strategies for consulting. There was a congressional poll done by the same company, the Enquirer found. Though the memo of the check is redacted with black marker, a close look at it shows the word "polling," the complaint alleges.

That Pureval spent clerk of courts campaign account money testing the waters for a congressional run. The complaint notes eight expenses in 2017, including an Atlanta hotel, stakeholder meetings, airline tickets and a payment to the Murphin Ridge Inn in West Union, Ohio.

The clerk of courts campaign finance report covered donations and expenses between Jan. 1, 2018 and June 30, 2018. The report shows Pureval started the reporting period with $10,691 in the clerk account. He raised $31,320 – $30,320 on the day of his congressional announcement and after the announcement. In that same time, he spent $28,380.

Pureval has filed three campaign finance reports in the congressional race, reports in April, May and July. He raised roughly $1.5 million.